Sunday, August 12, 2007

No one's faster than USPS

When people hear "Government Employee" what they see in their mind is long lines and workers barely doing anything. I've seen DOT, on a daily basis, come to work at 10AM, leave at 4PM or 4:30PM and probably take at least an hour for lunch. I've seen five MTA workers install floor displays, where two of them were doing the work and the other three were standing and looking at what their co-workers were doing.

Today, I'd like to talk about the fastest of the city employees, the USPS package delivery. Yes, I did in fact say USPS. The Postal Office has lines whenever you come there and at least a 30 minute waiting period. When I needed to pick up a package, I tried coming there at 9AM, 10AM, 12PM, 2PM, etc. with the exactly same result. No matter when I came, there was a line and I had to wait for 30 minutes or more to get my package. You may ask, "now hold on, you just said that the USPS package delivery is the fastest of the city employees." You're right, I did say that. The problem is, their speed is in how fast they run from your door after ringing the bell.

I live in the basement and my door is not at the front of the house, but rather on the side and close to the back. Whenever I get a delivery from UPS or FedEx, I have ample time to walk upstairs and open the door. The delivery person is always there waiting for me. Not so with USPS. It seems that the USPS delivery guy, as a kid, used to be one of those pranksters who would ring your bell and run away. Unlike UPS and FedEx, when the delivery is from USPS, when I open my door the driver is either getting in the truck or driving away. It takes me 30 seconds to a minute to come to the door and as I mentioned before, my door is towards the back of the house. The only way that the delivery guy would have enough time to ring the bell and be in his truck by the time I get to the door is if he waited 5 or at most 10 seconds before leaving.

Next time you hear someone say that all government employees sit around and do nothing, you can confidently say that there's one exception, the USPS delivery guy.